Silverchair

Press

04-12-1995

Agora Theater - Cleveland, USA

silverchair
strike gold at the Agora
The band shows maturity, creativity during its first Cleveland
apperance

By JANE
SCOTT
Rock Writer
Cleveland Plain Dealer

The band
silverchair may write its name with a small "s,"
but it proved bigger than its hype Monday night (December
4) at the Agora Theater in Cleveland.

And that
took some doing. This is the trio whose debut album frogstomp
entered the charts at No. 1 last year in its native Australia,
the first such feat in the country's history. What turned
the nation upside down was the fact that the band members
were only 15 at the time.

The group,
whose album rose to No. 9 on the Billboard charts in the United
States, gave a strong, tight show at the Agora, its first
appearance in Cleveland. Its concert was better than shows
by many musicians twice as old. And that took some doing,
too.

The club's
sound system was the worst of any on silverchair's American
tour so far, the members said afterward. In fact, for the
first two songs, silverchair sounded like an acoustic trio.
They had been loud and vigorous during sound check. Lead singer-guitarist
Daniel Johns said the sound kept bouncing back to the band.
He had trouble hearing his own voice.

As far
as the crowd was concerned, the concert really began in the
middle of Findaway. The club's mosh pit, which is unusually
large, seemed to throb as one. And that was something to see.
This crowd was a sold-out crowd of 1,800.

Then came
the heavy radio hit, Suicidal Dream. It started softly, Johns'
voice growing increasingly loud and clear as the song progressed.
The band did its first single Tomorrow (which reached No.
1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart) as the fifth song. That's
the one that won the three high schoolers a nationwide demo
competition in June 1994. The contest's sponsor, Australian
radio network Triple J aired the demo before it was recorded
on frogstomp. The song went platinum in Australia in a weak.
Chris Joannou's strong bass and Ben Gillies' powerful drums
drove the song as well.

One of
the attractive qualities at the show was singer Johns' quiet
but confident manner. No attitude, no showboating, just a
complete love of the songs and a chance to play. He slapped
on a knitted hat tossed up on stage. But he had humor,too.
He introduced the instrumental Madman as a "story about
a dog and cat having sex."

The trio's
songs are not only about youth traumas, as you would expect
from 16-year-olds, but about the world's, as in the story-song
about an earthquake in their hometown of Newcastle (Faultline)
and war (Pure Massacre).The latter had riveting changes of
a pace, with piercing screams symbolizing people dying "for
no reason at all."

The finale,
Israel's Son, is too monumental not to be the next single.
It's a drama in itself, a story of an execution. The song
pace got faster, winding up in dissonant sounds.

The band
was originally booked to open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers
at Gund Arena Nov. 26, but that show was cancelled because
of Peppers drummer Chad Smith's broken wrist. The creativity
and the commitment demonstrated by silverchair should keep
the band around for the long haul.